The solution is this:
If, for example, a Medicare patient needs a hip replacement and Medicare would pay $40,000, they cut a check to the patient for 75%, or $30,000. Result= Medicare saves $10,000.
The patient then goes abroad, where a hip replacement would be around $10,000, so he has $20,000 left over. He would use the $20,000 for travel and have quite a bit left over, to say the least.
This would encourage LOTS of people to travel abroad for care, which provide competition and other good secondary effects.
I haven’t checked the numbers, but I believe them to be approximately correct.
Already, there is a thriving medical tourism industry that helps with this, but only for items that are not covered by insurance, such as plastic surgery, dental care, etc. They would scale to meet demand, and medical practices would make it as easy as possible by moving as close to the US border as possible. This has already happened with “Molar City”, an area just over the Arizona / Mexican border that is very popular.
thanks. something needs to be done.
Maybe a voucher is the answer.
I went to CMS(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) to see about Inpatient Hospital Medicare payments. (not doctors fees)
The last year for statistics is 2014.
The actual costs & dollars paid are staggering.
one example:
Heart Transplant
University of Alabama
average charge $1,172,866.38
average payment $251,876.31
average medicare payment $244,457.92
13 patients.
then add the doctors fees to all that.
there were 1,518 heart transplant discharges throughout the U.S. in 2014.
Charges\payments are greater or lesser depending on the part of country the hospital is in.